The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a Pan-African grant making foundation based in Accra, Ghana. To date, AWDF has provided grant-making, capacity building and technical assistance to its network of over 1000 grantee partners in 42 African countries. In Nigeria, AWDF has supported 123 women’s rights and national organisations with over US$2.7 million in grant making. Grantee partners have included the following:

Project Alert on Violence Against Women – ‘Project Alert’ has been a grantee partner since 2003, and has benefited from US$177,800 in grant making. This has included supporting the building of ‘Sophia’s Place’, a shelter for women survivors of violence; capacity building support in fundraising and financial management for ‘Project Alert’ staff, as well as the delivery of a 6 month capacity building project on gender based violence for faith based organisations in Lagos State.

Ajegunle Community Project (ACP) – Since 2007, the Ajegunle Community Project has received US$77,500 in grant making. This funding has including supporting the training of women politicians, as well as professional development training for women seeking to take up leadership in public office. The Project Manager for ACP also benefited from attending a ‘Certificate Course in Resource Mobilisation’ organized by AWDF in conjunction with Resource Alliance (UK) and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. ACP credits this resource mobilization training for its current success in fundraising from the corporate sector.

Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Exploitation (WARSHE) – WARSHE has received US$109,000 in grant making since 2003. The organisation provides psychosocial, financial and legal support to survivors of violence. A huge part of WARSHE’s work has involved educating young people about violence against women and young girls, as well the steps one can take if you have suffered from gender based violence.

Monitoring and evaluation visits are an essential part of AWDF’s work, and enables the organisation to engage directly with grantee partners, offer direct technical assistance, learn about key issues affecting grantees and women in the community, region or country, and is invaluable for tracking the success and impact of the work being done by African women’s organisations.